I watched her accept the fact that she was alone with me, and watched as her persona adjusted to the fact. She smiled at me.
There was a touch of conspiratorial intimacy in the smile. Rikki Wu was sex. I was pretty sure she was spoiled and self-centered and shallow. Maybe cruel. Certainly careless about other people. But she was sex. She would like sex, she would need it, she would want more of it than most people were prepared to give her, and she would be totally self-absorbed during it. I'd spent too many years looking for it, and occasionally at it, not to know it when I saw it.
And I was seeing it. She would be a hell of a good time once a month.
'Well,' she said, 'here we are.'
'Sleepy-eyed and yawning,' I said.
'See how late it gets.'
'You're sleepy?'
'It's a song lyric. I have these momentary flights now and then.'
'Oh, how interesting.'
The waiter arrived, placed a large platter of assorted dim sum before us, and bowed himself away. Rikki Wu put several items on my plate.
'Thank you,' I said.
'Did you know Craig Sampson very well?'
'Oh, no.'
'You seemed very protective of him the other night.'
'I admired him, his work,' Rikki Wu said.
'He was a fine actor. And I did not like the innuendo of your questions.'
Her English was perfect, and formal-sounding. Her Chinese had sounded fluent too, though I had no way to judge that, except that it had been rapid.
'Yeah. I'm sorry I had to ask. Were you born here?'
'In Port City?'
'In the United States.'
'No. In Taipei
'So your English is acquired.'
She smiled.
'Yes. It's interesting that you should notice.'
'It sounds like your native language,' I said.
'Yes. It is. So is Cantonese, which I just spoke to the waiter.
And Mandarin.'
'You speak the Chinese dialects as well as you speak English?'
'Oh, certainly.' + 'What do you think in?' I said.
'Excuse me?'
'When you're alone, thinking about things, what language do you think in?'
She hesitated, and drank some tea. Maybe she never thought about anything when she was alone.
'I don't know… I guess it depends what I'm thinking about.'
She smiled.
'Or who.'
'Do you think much about Craig Sampson?'
'Yes, it's so tragic. Such a brilliant young man, his life cut short so suddenly.'
'Did you think about him much before he died.'
Her eyes widened. She sipped some more tea. Then her eyes narrowed a little and she looked sternly at me over the tea cup.
'What are you trying to imply?' she said coldly.
'Mrs. Wu, I'm just talking. I'm just looking for a handhold. I mean no innuendo.'
'There was nothing between Craig and me. I barely knew him offstage.'
'You live here in Port City?'
'On the hill,' she said.
'Of course. Did he have any relationship with any of the women in town that you know of?'
